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  • From: Lewis Cauble <lewis AT hivebody.com>
  • Cc: Orange County Bees <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Hive check feedback (beginner)...
  • Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:29:22 -0400

Blair,
The video is 100% awesome!  Thank you!

My off the cuff feelings....I didn't see much capped honey in the super so I would continue to feed.  Thicken up the syrup now that we are getting closer to Fall.  Use about twice as much sugar to water per weight.

I saw a fair amount of capped brood and good pollen stores in the brood chamber so it seems to me things are in order there.  A varroa check is certainly in order.  

1.  Monitor mites and deal with them if necessary.  This bulletin is a bit out of date but is a good start.  I have been using Mite Away Quick Strips but everyone has their own fave.
2.  Continue feeding a thick syrup.  
3.  Read up on hive ventilation for the winter.
4.  Entrance reducer on (after any mite treatments) to minimize mice in the hive.
5.  Cross your fingers.

My 2 cents and I hope others will chime in!

Lewis


On Sep 12, 2011, at 8:43 PM, Blair Christian wrote:

Hi All,

I did my first hive check last weekend, although I didn't quite
finish...  It was basically a wellness check to make sure the queen
was doing well, but I didn't check for varroa mites (I have been
meaning to cut some screen and make a bee shaker).


Here's the hive story: I got a 5 frame nuc from the carolina bee
company on 6/15.  Since then I've pumped 12.5 gallons of sugar syrup
in.  They started in a deep body have, but I added a medium on 7/21
when Don Hopkins came and did an inspection.

Here's my bee log:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ajxus2rq3XxPdDVzT3pLOGNmMUlfN2lXYzB5U0JNQVE&hl=en_US

Here are my notes from Saturday:
"top super- built up except for frames 1/10.  Killed 2 hive beetles.
Only got through half of deep super before I ran out of time- looked
good?  Lots of larvae (old and very young in frames 3-4). Removed some
wax from bridges between frames.  See photos.  Didn't see queen. "

I went through each frame in the medium and made it through have of
the deep body before I ran out of smoke and my family came home, but
there were plenty of little tiny larvae in the deep body frames I
looked at.  I pulled out some wax that they were bridging with- hope
that was the right thing to do.

I also made a movie of it (I set a camera on a tripod and had it take
photos every 5 sec; then I used picasa (google's free photo software)
to make a time lapse movie out of it:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/zym2V4ENbmKPpLAmho8tdw?feat=directlink

I have photos of pretty much every frame too if seeing those would
help with advice...  Any pointers/advice would be welcome.  Is it time
to stop feeding them sugar syrup, or should I continue?  They only
have a couple of medium frames left to fill out...

(there were 2 smokers because I got my grandfather's old smoker from
one of his sheds and wanted to see if it still worked/was any
different- it's pretty much the same except it doesn't have the safety
cage).

Thanks, Blair
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